Surface Pro 3 battery degradation

Anonymous
2016-05-11T07:37:37+00:00

I've been using Microsoft Surface Pro 3 for a year, and shortly after the warranty expired I noticed my Surface Pro 3 can only last about 1-2 hours after a full charge. At first I thought this was a problem with background process draining the battery so I disabled everything running in the background. It didn't helped. Then I found out about the powercfg utility and run powercfg /batteryreport on it, and this was the result:

A full charge capacity has degraded by over 80% in just few weeks and continue degrading. I tried to "recalibrate" the battery by doing full charge then full drain multiple times, and it didn't helped. Talk with Microsoft via chat support and they insist this was a software problem and reinstalled the driver and asked me to wait few days to see if things improve. Not only it didn't improved, but now my Surface can only last 30 minutes.

Few days after chat (today), I called Microsoft support and they were being extremely unhelpful. Insist that this was a software problem (which the chat support person already did) and it's "perfectly normal" for battery capacity to degrade. I insist that I've already done the software "fixes" and it didn't work and tell them this is definitely hardware problem, but the person on the phone tell me there's nothing I could do except to order the out of warranty exchange (which cost about $560 in my local currency). 

Is there anything else I should do? My country has no Microsoft Store which I could take the machine for them to take a look. Phone/online support were the only option, and none of them could understand the issue.

Surface | Surface Pro | Power and battery

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2016-07-26T21:31:16+00:00

Hello everyone,

Thanks for your continued patience here. We have now completed our testing of the update and it has passed our quality assurance process.

The update, “System Firmware Update - 8/29/2016”, is now available to install from Windows Update.

Before installing this update, ensure that your Surface Pro 3 is plugged directly in to AC power using the standard AC power adapter (do not use the Surface Docking Station), disconnect any USB devices or external monitors, and check that Windows shows a 40% charge or greater when you hover over the icon in the taskbar before you begin.

Once you install the update, please select Restart now (do not shutdown). After your Surface restarts, please manually restart it a second time to complete the process. For more information, please see our Surface Pro 3 Battery FAQ article.

If you’re having trouble charging your Surface, you get a low-battery error, or your Surface turns off when you unplug it, the steps in our Surface battery won’t charge article can help you pinpoint the problem. Should you need any further assistance, please contact us. 

Thanks again.

Greg

Updated 8/29/16.

Was this answer helpful?

100+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

1,459 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-14T01:51:18+00:00

    I also have the issue.  I use my surface pro 3 connected to a docking station most of the time.

    The use of a docking station seems to be mentioned quite frequently in this topic which has me wondering if that is possibly part of the problem; not the docking station itself but the discrepancy between the power it supplies and what the Surface Pro 3 draws under load. Perhaps that has confused the charging state of the battery, in software, or perhaps resulted in the early demise of the physical batteries.

    I use the docking station with my SP3 most of the time. Shame we can't create a survey in this topic to find the ratio of docking station users with this problem.

    I too use the docking station most of the time. Back when this happened to my Surface and it was otherwise not reported, I assumed this was a side effect of being plugged in for a long period of time. Not that it makes it acceptable.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-13T23:54:44+00:00

    I deleted and re-installed the acpi driver as part of my earlier troubleshooting - we have the same version - still have same problem unfortunately.  I was hoping to pull back the bios update back to before the January update.  In January it looks like the first update where MS published 'better' battery drivers that my system currently has (from update site: "Microsoft Surface ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery driver update (v1.2.0.2) ensures correct surface driver is installed").  I hope your battery doesn't keep falling.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-13T23:50:56+00:00

    I have simplo battery with about 290mWh.  Majority of time spent on docking station with power - only run off normal cord when traveling.  I've been off the docking station for about last 2-3 weeks and fall seems to be level at about 300mWh but have also tried a bunch of other things too - remove power when shut down etc.  So hard to separate the effets.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments